Cultivation!
Cultivation
Soon Ren arrived in front of a small wooden building. Even though Greenhaven was a small village, it was only small when taking the entire world of Ascension to account. On earth it is the size of a great city!
After all, the world of Ascension is countless times bigger than earth!
Ren stopped into the building and inside was an old man idly sipping from flask.
"Hello, I am Ren, I wished to learn the shamanic path from you, esteemed senior" Ren respectfully approached.
The man suddenly stopped drinking and put down the flask, sizing Ren up, "It's been a while since I… I met a respectful youth"
Ren understood that the old man must have had a hard time recently due to the hate directed at the shaman class by the players, it's not that the shaman class is a trash class, it's just too hard to play and most people that picked it ended up regretting due to its strictness. To them, it's just not worth it.
"The path of the shaman is not for the weak minded… are you sure this is the path you want to choose?" The old man asked seriously, his earlier drunk demeanor disappearing in an instant.
"Seems the old man is not just some random drunkard…" Ren thought to himself and decided that he had to flatter this old man even more, who knows if he might even give him some newbie gifts?
"Indeed, it is the shamanic path I seek. I'll go through fire and water for it" Ren affirmed, using a certain line he picked up while reading the novels of the past century.
The old man was a little surprised and he shook his head with a laugh, "Hahaha! Good! Good! I like your confidence, since you are sure, I'll give you the quest. Try to cultivate this manual to the first level in three days and boom!" He made an exaggerated gesture at this moment before continuing, "You are a shaman!"
Ren nodded, seeing his resolute face, with a flick of his hand, a thin book appeared out of thin air, Ren's eyes widened subconsciously.
The old man chuckled at his reaction and with a wave of his hand, the book flew towards Ren, "That's it, I have high hopes for you kid. Don't let me down" The old man said.
"I understand, thank you for your guidance, senior" Ren cupped his fist towards the old man before leaving the building.
A few minutes passed as he finally found a small isolated area though it was quite difficult with the large number of players moving around.
As the sun set over the village of Greenhaven, Ren sat cross-legged on the ground staring at the worn leather book in his hands. It is the common grade shaman cultivation manual he received from the shaman elder few minutes ago, at this moment his heart is racing with excitement and anxiety.
This is his chance to become a true shaman and harness the power of nature possibly changing the dire situation of his family.
"Hah… let's do this" With that said, he took a deep breath, opening the book to the first page.
The text was written in an ancient language which the system directly translated it for him, after studying it for an hour or two, he had studied enough to understand the basics. The manual described the fundamental principles of shamanic cultivation; Connecting with the natural world, sensing the spirits and channeling their energy.
Cultivation is all about absorbing the Qi or nature energy which could be found everywhere, the only difference is that different cultivation manuals results in different type of converted Qi. The nature Qi is just a simple myriad combinations of energies, the type of cultivation method decides what energy an individual will absorb and use.
He began to try the first technique, "Sensing the wind." The instructions were cryptic and he wondered why he received a wind oriented cultivation technique but he is still determined to comprehend them nonetheless. Thus, he closes his eyes, focusing on his breath and attempted to clear his mind.
At first, his thoughts wandered, but he patiently brought his attention back to the sensation of the air moving in and out of his nostrils. Slowly, he become aware of a subtle tingling in his fingertips, as if the wind was caressing them.
Some players happened to walk past his secluded alley, seeing his posture and the strange smile on his face as if he is in some kind of intense pleasure, they gave him weird looks and walked away without saying a word.
Unbeknownst to Ren, the time flies by, encouraged by the earlier sensation, he continued to practice and poured all his concentration into sensing the wind, Hours passed and the city grew dark, but he persisted.
Ding! Congratulations…
He couldn't bother to check the system notifications, it's more like he couldn't hear the notifications, losing himself in the pleasure of cultivation!
Suddenly, a gentle breeze rustled the pages of the manual, and Ren felt an electric chill run through his body. He opened his eyes, his eyes widened the next moment!
The air around him is shimmering with a soft, green light!
"I did it!" He exclaimed, grinning wildly.
According to the manual, this was the first sign of successful cultivation! The ability to sense the spiritual energy in the environment! Ren has reached the first level of Qi absorption realm!